*adopt more American approaches to addressing the global financial crisis;
*shoulder more of the military and economic load in Afghanistan; and
*accept more responsibility for holding the detainees currently at Guantanamo Bay.

And Europe wanted the opposite — for America to:
*adopt more European approaches to addressing the global financial crisis;
*shoulder more of the military and economic load in Afghanistan; and
*accept more responsibility for holding the detainees currently at Guantanamo Bay.
These conflicts of interest have been worked out not with hard power tools of threats and intimidation but with soft power tools of shaming and suasion. And the results so far are:

*America is going to adopt more European approaches to addressing the global financial crisis;
*America is going to shoulder more of the military and economic load in Afghanistan; and
*America is going to accept more responsibility for holding the detainees currently at Guantanamo Bay.

Claiming European soft power potency over the US (and Obama) on these three particular subjects is really just stating the obvious. The US lost their soft power over these issues; when the US were the epicenter of the global financial crisis; when the US sidetrack into Iraq; and when the US insist on their Guantanamo Bay prison. Soft power only works when your position is attractive to begin with, it cant be use to enhanced morally bankrupted policies, no one serious ever claim that it can.

At the Group of 20 summit meeting in London, leaders agreed to provide $1.1 trillion in loans and guarantees to boost international trade that would greatly increase the International Monetary Fund’s coffers. They also vowed to implement new regulations for hedge funds and large financial institutions, as well as a crackdown on tax havens, although these would have to be implemented by individual nations.

So is this how global governance strengths? through the ashes of global crisis? There should be some research out there on cross boundary crisis and subsequent agreement to enhance the cross boundary authorities by governments party to the crisis. Like the SARS outbreak, lead to a more powerful WHO, cross-state crime lead to a stronger US FBI, and obviously threat of Soviet Union lead to a stronger NATO and EU. If anyone know of any good research with quantitative evident on this topic, please do send me the link. Evident like crisis and subsequent budget increase of the cross boundary authority would be enlightening.

“Finally I am coming to the conclusion that my highest ambition is to be what I already am. That I will never fulfill my obligation to surpass myself unless I first accept myself, and if I accept myself fully in the right way, I will already have surpassed myself.” — Thomas Merton, Journal, October 2, 1958 (Hat tip: the happiness project)